China Medical Board, Inc., the China Medical Board of New York, Inc., and its later iteration China Medical Board (U.S.), are the successors to the China Medical Board division of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), formed in 1914 to manage RF's developing interests in medicine and medical education in China. (See also Record Group 4 of the Rockefeller Foundation Archives.)

In 1915 the Foundation bought the Union Medical College in Peking, which had been founded by Protestant missionaries in 1906. Development and support of the new Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), formally dedicated in 1921, gradually became the primary interest of the China Medical Board.

Incorporated in 1928, the China Medical Board, Inc. (CMB, Inc.) received from the Rockefeller Foundation ownership of the land and buildings of the PUMC and an endowment of $12 million. Until the outbreak of the war with Japan in 1941, the CMB, Inc. devoted its entire budget to the PUMC. While the PUMC was occupied by the Japanese, however, the Board provided aid to medical institutions in unoccupied China, helped PUMC undergraduates to continue their studies elsewhere, and maintained the nursing school in Chengtu (Zhengdu). Following the war, the PUMC served as the executive headquarters of General Marshall's peace commission until April 1947, when the Board resumed its support. By May 1948 the medical school, nursing school, and the hospital had resumed operation, but in January 1951, the People's Republic of China nationalized the PUMC. Unable to continue its support of the PUMC or its activities on the mainland, the Board undertook a broadened program of assistance to medical, public health, and nursing schools in many Far Eastern countries, and, to a lesser degree, to similar institutions in the U.S. In 1955 the CMB, Inc. changed its name to the China Medical Board of New York, Inc.